Van Working Tour, the journey of the smart working expert, Samuel Lo Gioco, discovering local operators in Italian villages, stops in Massa to tell the story of an Assoprovider member, Giuseppe Orofino. 

In Massa, a Tuscan municipality, we encounter the story of a local operator that this year celebrated its 10th anniversary and has over 7,000 clients. ApuanaCom by Giuseppe Orofino is a remarkable entity, consisting of 4 partners and 14 collaborators.  

The discoverer is Samuel Lo Gioco, the creator of Van Working Tour, who with Assoprovider travels through Italian villages to discover the faces and stories of independent providers who strive to reduce the digital divide in small Italian municipalities. 

Let's discover together the story of Giuseppe and his company.

The beginnings on the beach...

"We started by offering network services to tourist facilities," says Orofino. 

The history of ApuanaCom begins on the beach. Giuseppe and his partners start offering network services to tourist facilities as part of a wireless beach project. Starting from the beach is no coincidence, in a highly attractive tourist area called la Partaccia, among baths and campsites, it generates 7% of the GDP of the entire province.

From the beaches, the team then manages to create "connections" across the territory and neighboring municipalities, eventually covering about 10 municipalities. This hard work leads the company to win prestigious awards, such as the National Award for Technological Innovation organized by Confcommercio, and to secure prestigious tenders with the Municipality of Forte dei Marmi and Massa. This allows the company to expand its Free Wifi HotSpot networks, one of the largest in Italy.

3 tips for WISP colleagues

At the end of the conversation with Samuel, Giuseppe offers three pieces of advice to local operators who aspire to follow in his footsteps:

1. «Survives those who follow the interests of users».  The value proposition of proximity operators is precisely the relationship with the customer. Only by placing the customer at the center of the business can one thrive and offer alternatives to people compared to the big players in the sector.

2. "Those who do not have the ability to structure themselves as companies will perish." Giuseppe immediately focused on a corporate structure. He sought partners to share risks and increase expertise. He managed a small business in the beginning, offering the structure of a large company.3. "Unity is the key to survival." Giuseppe has chosen to join Assoprovider, understanding the importance of engaging with colleagues to participate in common battles and exchange skills and best practices.

Samuel Lo Gioco thus recounts his meeting with Giuseppe Orofino and Lorenzo Busatti (if you want to learn more read here):

"In these initial meetings, upon meeting Giuseppe and Lorenzo, I appreciated two things they have in common: their great availability and passion.

With Giuseppe, I appreciated the great passion he has for his territory. Looking at the Apuan Alps, he told me stories of those mountains, their evocative landscapes, the unspoiled nature, and the marble quarries, which since Roman times have created an important economy in the area.

With Lorenzo, without a doubt, the passion that immediately stands out is for the IT world. It takes just a few minutes to understand his technical and theoretical mastery, which is almost disconcerting. Another passion that I naturally appreciated, being a former motorcyclist, is for two wheels. Time flew by listening to his race anecdotes and sportsmanship in competition. 

Certainly, their value as a professional is undisputed, but today, thinking about our meeting, I remember and appreciate, happy to have met them, their human side.”